The Music of Carmen

Lucky you, if you are discovering for the first time Bizet's marvelous music and that provocative, headstrong, irresistible girl named Carmen. If you have experienced the opera many times, how rewarding to listen with fresh ears to this amazing music – the sinuous smoky chorus of the cigarette girls; the sultry Habanera; the surprising little idyll of the entre'acte to Act 3; the soaring anguish of Micaëla's aria Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante – and the audio and video selections below. The ease, the perfect dramatic inevitability of the music never palls.

The Seguidilla (Près des remparts de Séville), the aria that Carmen uses to seduce Don José into letting her escape from his custody. Here is a concert performance by the great Maria Callas in Hamburg in 1962.

Close by the walls of Sevilla,
Lives my old friend Lillas Pastia,
I'll go there to dance the Seguidilla
And to drink Manzanilla,
Yes, but all alone it's boring!
Real pleasures are for two to share ...
So to keep me company
I'll take my latest lover there! ...
You have arrived at just the right time!

At the beginning of Act 2, the gypsies sing and dance at Lillas Pastia's inn.

The flower that you threw to me stayed with me in prison,
Though faded and dried, this flower still kept its sweet fragrance ...
And I felt in myself, I felt but one desire
Only one thought, one hope: to see you again, Carmen, yes to see you again!

Audio recording of Anna Moffo singing Micaëla's Aria, Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante from Act 3.
Micaëa has come to the gypsy camp to find Don José to bring him to his dying mother. Micaëla is terrified of meeting Carmen and prays to the Lord to protect her and give her courage.

I said there was nothing could scare me, I said I'd stay here all alone tonight;
But though I try to act so bravely, Yet in my heart I die of fright!...

From Anna Moffo's 1961 RCA Victor debut recital LP.

San Diego OperaTalk! with Nick Reveles: An engaging video introduction to Carmen with Dr. Nicolas Reveles, Director of Education and Outreach at San Diego Opera.

This music seems perfect to me. . . this music treats the listener as intelligent, as if himself a musician . . . I become a better human being when this Bizet speaks to me. Also a better musician, a better listener.
Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner